Selling and Buying a Home
Real-life advice for buying and selling a home
Welcome to the Selling and Buying a Home blog.
My name is Leah Ingram, and, together with my husband, I’ve bought and sold eight homes in the past 20 years. One of those homes we built new.
My husband and I are also the DIY type. We’ve renovated nearly every home we’ve owned. This includes upgrading bathrooms, redoing a kitchen down to the studs and painting a home, top to bottom.
In addition to my personal experience as a homeowner, I’m a writer that has covered real estate for national publications.
For more than a decade I wrote about celebrity real estate, home-buying trends, money-saving tips for moving, curb appeal and more for NBC Universal and Parade Magazine.
Now I’m bringing my aspirational but authoritative and approachable take on selling and buying a home to my own blog. I’m going to share with you what works (and what doesn’t ) when selling a home as well as when you’re buying a home.
Rather than telling you what you want to hear, I’m going to tell you what you need to hear if you want to get a good price on a home you’re selling or buying. Basically, I’m going to cut through the BS and give you real-life, attainable advice that’s applicable to both buyers and sellers.
However, this is hardly my only blog. I’ve been covering personal finance for nearly as long as I’ve been selling and buying homes. Once we were suddenly frugal. These days we’re real sophisticated consumers.
You’re welcome to read my other blog The Real Sophisticated Consumer here.
Autumn Real Estate Market This Year
What do you need to know about the autumn real estate market this year? Well, my unscientific research of home sales overall is that fall real estate this year will be nothing like the autumn real estate market last year. Why? Well, a few things….
Home Closing Checklist for Sellers
How I wish I’d had a home closing checklist for sellers. This became apparent last month when I was running around doing last minute things to get my home ready for the closing. I mean, the easy stuff was done, like get all of my…
Home Showing Checklist for Buyers
Did you know that you should have a home showing checklist to take with you to open houses or house showings? That is, when you’re looking to buy a home, you should have a specific list in mind to check out a house. For example,…
House with a Gym: Selling or Buying a Home
Years ago, when I was writing a daily real estate blog for NBC Universal, I did a series of posts on houses with gyms for sale. These were indoor workout spaces that really set these homes apart from other places on the market. Not surprisingly,…
House Hunting Checklist
Here’s why you want to have a house hunting checklist as you embark on buying a home. A checklist can keep your thoughts organized as you look at houses. It can keep you on track if you tend to get distracted by shiny things, such…
Summer Real Estate Tips
This blog post focuses on summer real estate tips. Why summer? Well, for a few reasons. One, each real estate season is unique. That means that winter real estate is different from spring real estate, which is different from summer real estate? And, two, summer…
6 Questions to Ask When Hiring a Realtor
Do you know what questions to ask when hiring a Realtor? This is something you have to consider, whether you’re getting ready to sell your home or buy a new one–or both. Whether you’re a buyer or a seller, chances are you’re going to be…
How to Write a Real Estate Listing
When it comes to how to write a real estate listing, there are a few things to keep in mind. One, if you’re using a Realtor or real estate agent, they will be the one to write the listing. However, that doesn’t mean that you,…
Real Estate Open House Mistakes Sellers Should Avoid
When my husband and I were shopping for a new house many years ago, we attended an open house that a real estate agent was holding in a nearby neighborhood. The house itself was lovely. It was a five-bedroom home on two acres of land…
Who am I?
I’m Leah Ingram, homeowner seven times over, author of 15 books and journalist, formerly covering real estate for NBC Universal and Parade Magazine.